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Cash Management and Certificates of Deposit
While the economy has been a source of doom and gloom over the last year, if you have cash to manage, certificates of deposit (aka CD’s), are still a sound and safe way to manage your money. My grandmother used to keep her cash in the cookie jar on the top shelf, while grandpa thought under the mattress was the best place to save his coins. Today’s banks don’t seem to offer much more return than grandma’s cookie jar for savings and checking accounts. And even though CD rates have gone down slightly in the first week of November, they still offer a greater return than standard bank accounts and a safer investment for those not willing to take risks in the stock market.
Investing your cash in CD’s with staggering maturity dates, helps avoid penalties for early withdrawal in case of any financial crisis and the need to get access to your cash right away. Obviously
2009, year in review.
What a year it’s been!
As the history books close on 2009, I thought it might be nice to take a look back on the topics that were hot on Simple Debt-Free Finance over the past year.
401(k) Plans.
2009 saw a lot of talk about the future of the 401(k). It seems only natural, given that it is one of the major means of saving for retirement for many American workers who had just seen those savings drop like a stone in the 2008 stock market crash. A lot of the talk was centered around ways to “fix” the 401(k) when it isn’t broken. This bothered me enough to blog about it in that post as well as Fixing What Isn’t Broken and Why 401K Retirement Plans Really Don’t Work And How To Fix Them
Many workers, like myself, saw their company contributions to 401(k) plans cut or “temporarily” suspended. My response to
How to get a late payment deleted from the credit reports
I just got the good news that a client had a 2008 30-day late payment deleted. He had previously disputed it with Experian online, but of course they verified.
I recommended calling the creditor and explaining what happened. While the first person said it was too long ago for him to delete (request deletion PROMPTLY), the request was forwarded to management and they have now removed the late.
That late seriously lowered his FICO scores because it was such a RECENT late and since the account was OPEN and he has an otherwise FLAWLESS payment record, they should have deleted it. The reason for the late was that he didn’t receive the bill and the NEXT bill he received late because he was traveling.
Normally, you’d notice that you missed a bill when you get the NEXT statement with the PAST DUE notice. You should then still have a couple weeks to make a payment and never become 30 days past due. Late payments are NOT reported to the bureaus unless they are 30 days or more delinquent.
I
US Treasury Department Pushes Banks To Help Homeowners
The US Treasury Department just might look like a knight on a white horse to some homeowners facing foreclosure and unable to get cooperation from their mortgage company.
Despite a federally backed loan program meant to create permanent loan modifications, banks have been slow to work with consumers. That may change as the US government threatens fines to be assessed against banks unless they speed up their mortgage modification programs meant to keep homeowners in their houses.
The loan modification programs are meant to permanently lower mortgage payments so they are more affordable for homeowners trapped by a struggling economy. It is estimated that 375,000 homeowners are eligible for the government program by the end of the year. Given the rate of foreclosures this does not seem like many people overall. To date there have been 650,000 temporary mortgage modifications that fall under the Home Affordable Modification Program.
Unfortunately the banks and mortgage companies have been quite slow about processing the loan modifications.
Post-Holiday Debt: How to Handle it so it doesn’t Haunt you all Year Long
You swore you wouldn’t do it.
You swore you’d keep your spending in check this holiday season and lay off the credit cards. But here you are again: stuck with loads of credit card debt and equal parts post-holiday guilt.
Don’t give up hope just yet, though. The fact of the matter is that there are a few, simple ways to control your debt and spending and eliminate credit card debt so that it doesn’t rule your life.
The following tips will help get you started on a new, financially responsible 2010:
- Consolidate your debt – Often times, debt can seem all the more overwhelming and difficult to manage when you are struggling with numerous credit cards. Instead, consolidate your debt onto one credit card with a competitive interest rate and a fair balance transfer offer.
- Pay more than your minimum payment – Simply put, your credit card balances can go nowhere if you continue to pay just the minimum payment. Find at lea
Tis the Season of Saving and Covering our own #%@
The Boston Globe opinion op-ed: For Hyatt, a difficult decision in trying times begs that in this season of good will toward all, that we corporate and leisure travelers forgive Boston General Manager Phil Stamm and his epic PR bungle of coldly firing its veteran housekeeping staff and replacing it with non-benefit temporary workers – because come-on, after the story broke THEN they tried to do the right thing! If people don’t forget his bungle soon (and stop the children from picketing his hotel) you might put his job in jeopardy and Mr. Stamm for one does not want to see that happen…
The NPR story: Walking Away From The House She Can Afford profiles Heather Baker who is in the process of strategically defaulting on her house – but at least she does feel bad about how her actions are screwing over her neighbors – just not bad enough to stop herself from doing it.
“I hate to sound cold and uncaring and contract-breaking, but I’m really OK with it,” Baker says.